A1286 Fan questions

[applegrrl]

Hello,
Long time lurker, first time poster, hope this is in the right area.
I have a MacBook Pro 15" mid 2012 2.3ghz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, APPLE HDD ST500LM012 225.32ghz free, running Catalina 10.15.7 (19H1824).

I've noticed for 6mos.-ish, the fans have not been working. (I notice the area on the left side (HDD) where my palm/wrist set get very warm) Today I took the back cover off, vacuumed all of the tons of dust out, removed both the fans, vacuumed and compressed aired the dust from them, and replaced. Shut the machine back up.

Question 1: if the fans spin, are they still in workable condition?

Question 2: Is there a way to manually turn the fans on to verify they are indeed working?

Thanks!

 

[DeltaMac]

I think the 2012 MBPro fans should be turning whenever the power is on.
You can take the bottom cover off, turn power on (carefully!) and turn the MBPro to a position where you can see the fans.

You can also install something like smcFanControl, or Macs Fan Control, there's a couple of others that I can't remember.
Those will allow you to run up the speed on the fans, as well as control each fan separately for a little testing.

(consider replacing that old, spinning hard drive with an SSD. You will be amazed at the difference!

 

[applegrrl]

Awesome!! Thank you so much! Install Macs Fan Control and both fans are working!! Yea!!

You know I was told when I bought this that it was an SSD drive, I was surprised looking at the specs today that it actually says HDD.

 

[DeltaMac]

Maybe the specs are the original factory specs (which sound correct), and not showing what you purchased...
Double-check on your drive! On your desktop, go the Apple menu/About This Mac. Along the top of that information window, choose the "Storage" tab. That should show you the boot drive, and will say Hard Drive, or it will tell you that you have a Solid State SATA drive

(It only takes about 20 minutes to replace a hard drive with an SSD (!) )

 

[B S Magnet]

Hello,
Long time lurker, first time poster, hope this is in the right area.
I have a MacBook Pro 15" mid 2012 2.3ghz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, APPLE HDD ST500LM012 225.32ghz free, running Catalina 10.15.7 (19H1824).

I've noticed for 6mos.-ish, the fans have not been working. (I notice the area on the left side (HDD) where my palm/wrist set get very warm) Today I took the back cover off, vacuumed all of the tons of dust out, removed both the fans, vacuumed and compressed aired the dust from them, and replaced. Shut the machine back up.

Question 1: if the fans spin, are they still in workable condition?

Question 2: Is there a way to manually turn the fans on to verify they are indeed working?

Thanks!

Welcome!

Answer 1: The fans on the A1286 should always be spinning when the system is running. Nominally, the minimum speed should hover around 2000rpm. This is how fast they should spin if the system is idling with no activity.

Longer answer: as these fans start to fail, it’s common for them to ramp up with fairly obnoxious noises. This is usually a sign that they’ll need replacing soon. Or, if you’re feeling adventurous, it may be possible to carefully take apart the fans to clean the spindles and to use a special lubricant for the spindle to eke a bit more life from them. The lubricant should be something designed for high-speed motors (like those used in power drills).

Answer 2: I second @DeltaMac ! And replacing a drive on the unibody MBPs is remarkably easy. You could probably even do it in ten minutes.

 

[eyoungren]

Just to add here concerning controlling the fans. On my laptops and my Minis I use smcFanControl. On my MacPro that app does not seem to work so it's MacsFanControl (if I need it).

I find that setting fans to 2500 or 3000rpm is a balance of quiet and efficient (cool) operation. Just something I'm putting out there as a reference.

 

[Amethyst1]

APPLE HDD ST500LM012

If that’s the drive model shown in System Profiler, it is indeed a (Seagate 5400rpm) HDD.